Incandescent lamp



Nov. 28, 1967 Filed Jill 13, 1965 s. c. PEEK. JR

,INCANDESCENT LAMP 2 Sheets-Sheet l hVvEN'TOR.

v BY

ATTORNEY SANDFORD C. PEEK JR.

Nov. 28, 1967 s. c. PEEK. JR

INCANDESCENT LAMP 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 13, 1965 M W P M m m 3 M G lTF Q i 31 k j m 8 LT Z? 6 4 &

VOLTAGE FIG.4

ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,355,612 INCANDESCENT LAMP Sandford C. Peek, Jr., Ipswich, Mass., assignor to Sylvania Electric Products Inc., a corporation of Delaware Filed July 13, 1965, Ser. No. 471,608 2 Claims. (Cl. 313-35) This invention relates to incandescent lamps and more particularly to lamps of the type having dimming means integral therewith.

Light intensity dimmers are utilized in many areas for effect lighting as well as practical features they afford, that is, the variable intensity of light can be adjusted to various light levels for different needs to accentuate a display or just merely reducing the glare for eye comfort.

Earlier incandescent dimmers consisted of a wall switch, the switch usually being made up of a series resistor or auto transformer type circuit. The selection of the desired light level was achieved by rotation of a knob that would control a contact arm or movable brush contact on the interior of the switch, the brush contact rode on a bared portion of a transformer winding to increase or decrease the voltage required. Progressive improvements in the circuitry of the dimmer switch developed to a point where semiconductors are now widely used, thus simplifying the circuitry and making a more compact and efiicient instrument for the consumer. Even with the present day improvements to the dimmer switch, the homeowner balks at installing such switches within the home because of the high cost of installation and the inconvenience it is expected to entail.

My invention reduces these above-mentioned problems by providing a dimming arrangement integral with an incandescent lamp, thus eliminating any electrical wiring. The lamp I use is a high intensity single-ended quartziodine lamp fitted to a socket located at the top of an elongated shell or container, the other end of the container being fitted with a conventional Edison type lamp base. The container located between the high intensity lamp and the base is utilized to house a semiconductor dimmer control arrangement. When fully assembled, the high intensity lamp, located in a conventional lamp socket at the top of the cannister, is covered with a frosted globe for light diffusion and to prevent accidental contact with the lamp. The lamp, dimmer control and the conventional lamp base are all electrically connected to provide a convenient integral lamp structure with all advantages of a lamp dimmer switch. The many advantages of this type of structure are quite obvious in that the main feature is the lack of installation cost, the user merely using the dimmer lamp as a conventional lamp, by screwing the dimmer lamp into any conventional lamp socket as he would a standard incandescent lamp.

The convenient size of the complete dimmer lamp structure is slightly larger than a standard lamp and it will fit within most of the standard lamp frames or harps as they are referred to on the market. This in itself is a paramount feature. Simply by replacing the standard bulb with the dimmer lamp, the homeowner has the advantage of controlled variable light levels with no added cost of installation. The life of the high intensity lamp is known to have a much shorter life than the standard incandescent lamp but under this particular arrangement, the life of my lamp is lengthened considerably with the use of the dimming control unit. Replacement of the high intensity lamp after burn out would be the only cost to the consumer, the remainder of the dimming unit, that is, the cannister housing, the dimmer control and the frosted globe, do not have to be replaced under normal conditions.

Therefore it is an object of my invention to provide an incandescent lamp arrangement having an internal dimming switch integral with the lamp structure.

Another object is to provide a dimmer control to adjust the light levels of a high intensity incandescent lamp and make small enough to fit most standard lamp harps.

And a still further object of the invention is to provide an arrangement whereby a high intensity lamp is adapted to a standard Edison base.

Other objects, features and advantages of this invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the following specification when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is an enlarged exploded view showing in particular the high intensity lamp and its integral socket.

FIGURE 2 is an elevational cross-sectional view of the lamp structure.

FIGURE 3 is a schematic drawing of a conventional semiconductor circuit that can be used.

FIGURE 4 is a schematic drawing of a voltage wave form for the lamp.

Referring to FIG. 1 which illustrates an exploded view of the lamp dimmer structure, the high intensity lamp 10 is of the newly developed single-ended quartz-iodine type. This lamp has the flexibility of burning in any position rather than the former double ended counterpart that was restricted to burn only in a horizontal position. The lamp also has many other advantages; it is small in size and high in light output. In my structure I prefer to use a 300- watt quartz-iodine lamp for its particular size and high wattage; the size of the lamp is an important factor in my lamp structure. The complete lamp dimmer lamp must be small enough to fit within the majority of the present lamp harps.

As viewed in FIGS. 1 and 2, lamp 10 is fitted into a lamp socket 12 that is centrally located in the apex of a cone-shaped extension 14 fitted to the top of an elongated cannister 16. At the lower end of cannister 16 a conventional Edison-type base 18 is fitted, thus making the cannister a dual purpose structure, that is, it serves as a lamp adapter for lamp 10 and also provides space for other components, mainly a conventional dimming control unit 26 housed within the cannister 16. A tapered central knob 20 extends from the dimming unit 26 to the outside of cannister 16, thus by rotation of control knob 20, the dimming control unit can be manipulated during normal operation.

Positioned on the interior surface of the cone-shaped extension 14, I provide a plurality of spring clips 24 adapted to retain a soft glass circular globe 25 used to diffuse the light of lamp 10 and also to protect the user from accidently coming in contact with the hot lamp 10.

As noted above, and as viewed in FIG. 2, the complete lamp assembly is shaped similar to a standard lamp but, as will be pointed out, has many advantages over the conventional lamp. As viewed in FIG. 2, the cannister 16 can be fabricated from any workable material such as plastic, etc., and the interior cavity is large enough to house the semiconductor dimming unit 26. The conical tip portion 12 is fitted into the top part of the cannister 16 with suitable fasteners and can be of the same material as that of the cannister 16.

The lamp socket 12 for the high intensity lamp 1t) fitted and held in an opening provided in the conical-shaped top 14 and the base and the lamp 10 are electrically connected to the dimmer control unit 26 by suitable wires 30, the dimmer unit 26 is also electrically connected to the standard Edison base 18.

It is known that high intensity quartz-iodine lamps burn hotter than the conventional lamps used in the present day lamp fixture; therefore it is essential to protect the semiconductor control unit and the lamp shade, that will be positioned adjacent to the lamp, from damage. Therefore I provide adequate paths to dissipate the heat generated by the lamp 10. The lamp initiates the convection of air current by drawing cooler air in through the holes 36 at the bottom of the cannister over the semiconductor control unit and thence out through the top holes 40 located in the glass globe 25.

It would be mentioned that the power into the lamp is dependent upon the time the lamp is triggered on. Therefore the voltage wave form is similar to that indicated in FIG. 4 where at full voltage the symmetrical silicon switches would fire at the start of each half cycle, at full off it would fire at the end of each half cycle.

The dimming control unit I propose to use can be any conventional semiconductor circuit, for example, a circuit employing either symmetrical silicon switches which conduct in either direction when the trigger pulses or a logic diode as shown in FIG. 3 where the diode supplies the trigger pulse through a toroidal transformer. The on time is determined by the conduction of the S8842. It is either on or off with low impedance when on and high impedance when off. An S8842 is an avalanche type of semiconductor which will fire in either direction when a high voltage pulse is applied. The pulse transformers 44 supply such a pulse when a trigger pulse is applied to its primary. This pulse is obtained from a trigger type S5846. The timing of the trigger pulse is determined by the RC network which includes a variable potentiometer 48. The

break over voltage of the trigger 88546 is lower than line voltage and the time at which it fires depends on the phase angle set by the potentiometer 48.

The phase angle is determined by the time constant of the RC network comprising capacitor 50 and resistors 52, 53 and the variable potentiometer 48. When the voltage across the trigger S8546 reaches its firing potential it discharges the capacitor 51 through the primary of transformer 44, thereby providing the trigger pulse which ultimately tires the S5542. Capacitor 54 is placed across the series combination SSS42 and the transformer 44 in order to filter out any high voltage pulses which may occur on the line voltage and thereby causing extraneous firing.

What I claim is:

1. An incandescent dimming lamp assembly compris ing: a high intensity light source including a substantially tubular envelope having a base on one end only; a dimming control apparatus; and a hollow cannister having a socket at one end and a base at the other end thereof, and provided with air circulation ports, said dimming control apparatus located within said hollow cannister and said socket being adapted to receive said base on said envelope and said base of said cannister being adapted to be received by a conventional receptacle, whereby operation of said dimming control will vary the light level of said high intensity lamp; said circulation ports in said cannister providing heat dissipating means to protect said dimming apparatus located in said cannister.

2. An incandescent dimming lamp assembly comprising: a high intensity light source including a substantially tubular envelope having a base on one end only, and covered by a difl'using globe provided with circulation ports; a dimming control apparatus; and a hollow cannister having a socket at one end and a base at the other end thereof and provided with air circulation ports; said dimming control apparatus located within said hollow cannister and said socket being adapted to receive said base on said envelope and said base of said cannister being adapted to be received by a conventional receptacle, whereby operation of said dimming control will vary the light level of said high intensity lamp; said lamp generating heat to initiate convection of cooling air currents whereby cool air is drawn over said dimming control unit by way of air circulation ports in said cannister and said diffusing globe.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 264,650 9/1882 Edison 31317 2,951,935 9/1960 Cole 24047 3,028,523 4/1962 Seid 313-318 X 3,188,490 6/1965 Hoff et al 315 3,215,891 11/1965 Fritz of; a1 315-272 X 3,275,922 9/1966 Meyer 61 al.. 315 200 x FOREIGN PATENTS 698,909 11/1930 France.

1,045,808 7/1953 France.

JOHN W. HUCKERT, Primary Examiner.

R. F. POLISSACK, Assistant Examiner. 

1. AN INCANDESCENT DIMMING LAMP ASSEMBLY COMPRISING: A HIGH INTENSITY LIGHT SOURCE INCLUDING A SUBSTANTIALLY TUBULAR ENVELOPE HAVING A BASE ON ONE END ONLY; A DIMMING CONTROL APPARATUS; AND A HOLLOW CANNISTER HAVING A SOCKET AT ONE END AND A BASE AT THE OTHER END THEREOF, AND PROVIDED WITH AIR CIRCULATION PORTS, SAID DIMMING CONTROL APPARATUS LOCATED WITHIN SAID HOLLOW CANNISTER AND SAID SOCKET BEING ADAPTED TO RECEIVE SAID BASE ON SAID ENVELOPE AND SAID BASE OF SAID CANNISTER BEING ADAPTED TO BE RECEIVED BY A CONVENTIONAL RECEPTACLE, WHEREBY OPERA- 